Twas the Night Before Christmas

Via the Real Gun Guys:

‘Twas the night before Christmas,
cold, dark and foreboding,
I sat at the work bench,
quite busy reloading.

The empties from autumn were polished so clear
for primers and powder and bullets from Speer
and Hornady´s soft-points, and Nosler´s Partitions
(my bench Ain’t no place for brand
name omissions!).

All sat in their boxes, right next to the
press with dies from Pacific, and RCBS,
when all of a sudden there came such a jolt,
I grabbed for my Benelli and whipped out my Colt.

As I spilled Hodgdon’s powder all over the shelf,
I scrambled for cover, just to protect myself.

From up on the rooftop, came hoofbeats and snorting
like the noise out of L’il Rock from Clinton’s cavorting!

I eased off the safety to press-check my
auto with 230-talons I’ll knock ’em all blotto.

Were these rogue federal agents sent by Schumer and Reno ?
Or a staggering Ted Kennedy, in bad need of vino?

My question was answered with a knock, and some sneezing,
“It’s Santa, you moron, lemme in there, I’m freezing!”

I flipped off the dead-bolt and threw the door wide
to find St. Nick a shivering, Rudolph by his side.
He eyeballed my A.K. with a nod of approval
“You’re all set,” he said, “for dirtball removal.”

“But this is no raid, we’re not here to harm you
nor persecute, prosecute, nor even disarm you.”
“Instead,” said dear Santa, “I needed to borrow
your .357 ’till day after tomorrow.”

“It’s okay,” he assured me, with a hint of frustration,
“I’m enrolled in the National Rifle Association.”

He showed me his card, ’twas a Life Member rating,
“I’ve had this since me and the missus were dating!”

“And you see, Dave, ol’ buddy, I’ve gotten real nervous
since Feinstein was elected with a promise to serve us.

So henceforth as I’m out there, my presents a stackin’,
I want to assure you, I’m legally packin”,
and my gift for you this year should give you a hoot
I’ve told the Supreme Court to give Brady the boot!

Now, Rudy and I must be on our way,”
he said as he climbed back in his sleigh.
With the reins in his hand and my Colt in his pocket,
he jingled the sleighbells and was off like a rocket.

With a pair of speedloaders and ammo to spare,
I knew he’d be safe, he was loaded for bear!

As he faded from view, I could still hear him calling
“From D.C., where ‘P.C.’ is already falling.
To bad guys in L.A. , Detroit and Atlanta ,
“I’m licensed to carry, don’t go messin’ with Santa!”

Ron Paul on the Civil War

I’m not going to jump on the “Ron Paul is racist!” bandwagon, because I don’t have any evidence that the man is, to be honest.  I don’t agree that this statement to Tim Russert is evidence, but I do take exception to it:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbOE4Ip7In0[/youtube]

I think Matt Yglesias said it best:

Obviously, yes, there were better ways to end slavery. That’s why Abraham Lincoln didn’t run on a platform that said “let’s have a bloody civil war!” Rather, his idea was to prevent the expansion of slavery into new territories and try to nudge the country in the direction of compensated emancipation. The South, though, decided that rather than abide by the results of the election, they would secede from the country and establish a new herrenvolk democracy committed to slavery uber alles. They, not Lincoln, put resolution of the slavery issue through the political process out of reach.

I pretty much agree Yglesias with this.  I don’t think civil war was going to be avoided unless the issue of ending slavery went away, which it wasn’t going to do.  Other countries were able to end slavery because they had much less to lose from doing so than the cotton states did.

I might agree that’s it’s a valid point of view that there were better ways to end slavery, but it’s views like this that make me very skeptical that Ron Paul is going to capture the mainstream and win the nomination for his party.  It’s a shame too, because I like a lot of the ideas he espouses, I just think he’s a very poor vehicle for moving them forward.

Two New Bills

Just to give you folks some idea of what the Philadelphia politicians are up to these days, we have two new bills introduced into the Senate here in Pennsylvania. They are:

SB 1217 By Williams, A. Amends Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) further providing for firearms not to be carried without a license by adding the procedures for which any vehicle or vessel used to transport a person unlawfully carrying a firearm may be deemed contraband and forfeited.

So if you have someone in your vehicle who is, perhaps mistakenly, under the impression his license is a reciprocal one, when it is, in fact, not, you lose your car. If you don’t have an LTCF, and you’re transporting a handgun, and stop to pick up your friend to head to the range, you could lose your vehicle.

Pennsylvania’s laws on transporting handguns are already draconian if you don’t have a license. There’s not any good reason to add to the hazard, especially when the driver may not know his passenger is illegally armed.

SB 1228 By Williams, A. Amends Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) further providing for licenses. In a city of the first class, a license shall be issued only if it appears that the applicant has good reason to fear an injury to the applicant’s person or property or has any other proper reason for carrying a firearm and that the applicant is a suitable individual to be licensed.

This would turn the clock back in Philadelphia to the days prior to Act 17 when the City of Brotherly Love was may-issue. Watch out for this one folks! I think this could be their next big push. They won’t be able to show any evidence that any of the city’s 32,000 license holders are being arrested for violent crimes, but they will make those people the scapegoats, and make them pay. Why? Because deflecting blame for their own failures if what Philadelphia politicians do best.

UPDATE: I should note that these have been referred to the judiciary committee.  Politicians introduce a lot of very bad bills every year that get referred to committee and then never get a hearing.  It’s very likely that these bills will die quietly in committee, but it’s worth noting what the Philadelphia politicians think of gun owners.

The Gold Standard

I’ve been reading Megan McArdle’s various posts about Ron Paul’s rather kooky idea about returning to the gold standard.  It seems to have brought the Ronulans out in force.  I love comments like this:

You are a clueless woman. I am just an engineer not an economist, and yet I know these things. A piece of sincere advice – you should stop posting on all matters economic. Focus on some birth control pills and stuff.

I am an engineer as well, and I also know a bit about economics, but I an also aware I know a tiny fraction of what Megan McArdle knows on the subject.   This sounds like a case of people hearing something they don’t want to believe, and attacking the messenger.  Truth hurts, I suppose.